Updates, etc

Two weeks ago I went to Antigua, Guatemala with my favorite married couple, Ben and Kelly, who live in Copan Ruinas. Antigua is absolutely ‘preciosa,’ like a tiny little piece of Europe in Central America. Shops, baroque churches, fantastic restaurants and volcanoes! What more do you need in life?

In terms of work, I am now working with the Oficina de La Mujer , which is a women’s group charged with promoting women’s rights in Cabañas and the neighboring communities. My role in all of this will be on the health end of things, and supposedly we will be working to promote stoves with chimneys and outdoor cooking, although we have yet to even create a work plan. I find the pace of work here to be frustrating, but I suppose it is a good exercise in patience…

Here are some funny and awkward things that have happened to me in recent weeks>

- my neighbors made ¨mondongo¨ soup which is basically boiled chicken liver and chicken heads. I politely declined, explaining that in my culture we never eat the brains of anything. Gross!

- I heard a rumor about myself - that Nick (one of the former PCVs in in my town) is my first cousin

- Another rumor- that I am Brazilian. I’ve actually heard this one from several different people.

- There are a group of 17 year old boys that are ‘in love with me.’ Everywhere I go I get catcalls, even from my neighbors. Never mind that I’ve been here for four months.

- my coworker is trying to hook me up with her son that is in high school. How weird

- People describe me as being ‘gordita’ or ‘chubby’ all the time and it drives me crazy, especially since I‘ve lost like 15 pounds!

- Last week we had our ‘Reconnect’ conference, where all the volunteers get together to share information about their sites and their projects. At the end of the conference, we had a talent show, and guess who took first place! I preformed about 7 songs that I had written about my experiences in Honduras. (One of these days I am going to find a way to record the songs and put them up online...)